With more and more Australians electing to live in the inner city, the expectations around apartment living standards continue to grow. This arguably means finding a good strata management team to manage your apartment block has never been so important.
Without a dedicated and professional team to handle the complexities of apartment living, you could find your apartment block becomes less appealing to potential buyers and less appealing to existing owners! How so? Read on to find out…
A Poorly Maintained Complex Won’t Attract and Keep Quality Owners and Tenants
A crucial component of a strata manager’s role is to ensure that all cyclical, planned and reactive maintenance is carried out:
a. in a timely fashion:
b. by appropriately qualified professionals
c. at a value-for-money price; and
d. in a way that is safe for residents and contractors
If your strata management team drops the ball on maintenance, you could start to notice components of the property falling into disrepair; this may mean a greater sum of money needs to be spent in the future! You could also find that potential buyers and tenants will be turned off by the less-than-savoury appearance of the complex and that safety issues may arise due to overdue maintenance on vital facilities like swimming pools and lifts.
At Strata United, we work hard to secure quality contractors at affordable prices, this helps keep owner/occupiers and landlords happy and increases the likelihood that people will invest long term in the complexes we manage.
It’s all About Thinking Ahead
A good strata management team will seek to manage your complex proactively.
This means they’ll devote time and energy to compiling issues to be addressed at committee meetings and AGMS, in consultation with owner/occupiers, tenants and committee members. They will also endeavour to nip problems in the bud in regards to inappropriate resident behaviour and breaches of the strata laws. A good strata manager can even advise you about upcoming changes to legislation which may affect your strata scheme. Note: strata managers are not lawyers and cannot be expected to give legal advice, they can offer however share their knowledge about issues that may represent potential legal concerns.
Strata Management is Money Management
When you engage the services of a strata manager you will be entrusting them to manage most, if not all, of the financial aspects of running the complex. This means you want to select a reliable, capable strata manager who you can trust to do the following:
- Ensure lot owners pay their levies on time and that any arrears are proactively and consistently followed up
- Keep budgets in check and communicate any unavoidable budget blow-outs promptly to the strata committee
- Pay invoices within due dates to avoid late payment fees
- Plan ahead for significant upcoming costs so there’s no nasty surprises
We hope this article has helped you appreciate the importance of selecting a quality strata management team to take care of your complex.
For experience and diligence in all things strata management, contact Strata United today.